Global Education & Technology Group Ltd. (GEDU) stock jumped 95.53 percent to $10.50 in pre-market trading. Pearson Plc (PSO) said it has agreed to acquire Global Education & Technology Group for $155 million cash, comprised of a headline price of $294 million or $11.006 per American Depository Share offset by an expected cash balance of $139 million at closing. Under the merger agreement terms, each ordinary share of Global Education & Technology issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the merger will be cancelled in exchange for the right to receive $2.7515 per ordinary share or $11.006 per ADS, in cash without interest, except for the ordinary shares held by Global Education & Technology as treasury shares which will be cancelled without receiving any consideration. The merger contemplated by the agreement is currently expected to close before the end of the fourth quarter 2011.

Pharmasset, Inc. (VRUS) stock climbed 86.07 percent to $135.22 in pre-market trading. Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) said it has agreed to buy Pharmasset for $137 per share in cash. The transaction, which values Pharmasset at around $11 billion, was unanimously approved by Pharmasset's Board of Directors. As per the terms of the merger agreement, a subsidiary of Gilead will promptly begin a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Pharmasset's common stock at a price of $137 per share in cash. Gilead said after the successful completion of the tender offer, it will acquire all remaining shares not tendered in the offer through a second step merger at the same price as in the tender offer. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.

BSD Medical Corp. (BSDM) stock advanced 18.70 percent to $3.11 in pre-market trading. The company said it has obtained Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) marketing approval for the BSD-2000 Hyperthermia System from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company said BSD-2000 is approved for use in conjunction with radiation therapy treating cervical cancer patients who normally would be treated with combined chemotherapy and radiation but are ineligible for chemotherapy due to patient related factors. The HDE approval authorizes the commercial sale of the BSD-2000.

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX) stock grew 10.29 percent to $3 in pre-market trading. The company announced the presentation of mature overall survival or OS data for ACT 3, a multi-center, single arm, Phase 2 clinical trial of rindopepimut in patients with newly diagnosed EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma or GB. The data demonstrated a final median OS of 24.6 months from diagnosis, which is significantly better than 15.2 months for a historical cohort of patients selected to match ACT 3 eligibility criteria. The company said the median OS data obtained from the 31 centers participating in the ACT 3 study are very consistent with 2 prior smaller studies with rindopepimut in GB conducted at M.D. Anderson and Duke University which showed 24.6 and 24.4 month median OS, respectively. In ACT 3, the two-year survival rate was 52 percent and compares very favorably with 6 percent for the matched EGFRvIII-positive historical cohort. The two-year survival data in ACT 3 is also consistent with the two prior studies, which each showed 50 percent survival at two years. Moreover, data from ACTIVATE and ACT 2 have shown that about 20 percent of patients from each study continue treatment with durations of 6-8 years on study.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) stock slid 5.22 percent to $37.80 in pre-market trading. The company said it has agreed to buy Pharmasset, Inc. (VRUS) for $137 per share in cash. The transaction, which values Pharmasset at around $11 billion, was unanimously approved by Pharmasset's Board of Directors. As per the terms of the merger agreement, a subsidiary of Gilead will promptly begin a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Pharmasset's common stock at a price of $137 per share in cash. Gilead said after the successful completion of the tender offer, it will acquire all remaining shares not tendered in the offer through a second step merger at the same price as in the tender offer. Gilead said it expects the transaction, when completed, to reduce its earnings through 2014 and to add in 2015 and beyond. The company added that further guidance will be provided when the transaction closes, which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2012.

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A year and a half after the Panama Papers leak hit headlines across the globe, the country's finance minister sat down with IBT to discuss what his department has been doing since then to clean up Panama's reputation on the world stage and keep the use of secretive tax havens in check.